George Lynch (basketball) : biography

September 3, 1970 -

George DeWitt Lynch III (born September 3, 1970, in Roanoke, Virginia) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the NBA from 1993 to 2005. He holds the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill basketball record for most career steals.

Lynch was raised in Roanoke, Virginia and played basketball at Patrick Henry High for coach Woody Dean. Lynch was part of the 1989 Virginia State Champion Team at Patrick Henry. For his senior year, he transferred to Flint Hill School, a prep school located outside Washington D.C. to better his chances at college prospects.

After leading the University of North Carolina to an NCAA title in 1993, he was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 12th overall pick in that year's NBA Draft. With the Lakers, he wore three different jersey numbers - #24, #30 and #9. Lynch was traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies along with Anthony Peeler in 1996 in order to open up salary cap space in order to sign Shaquille O'Neal. He joined the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent in 1999.

It was with Theo Ratliff, Tyrone Hill, Eric Snow, Dikembe Mutombo, Allen Iverson, and coach Larry Brown that he helped form one of the better defenses in the league.

After playing with the 76ers for three seasons, he was traded to the Charlotte Hornets in a three-way trade also involving Derrick Coleman, Jerome Moiso, Robert Traylor, and Vonteego Cummings, among others, in 2001, retiring after 2004-05.

On December 20, 2006, he joined the Southern Methodist University men's basketball staff under head coach Matt Doherty, who was part of North Carolina Tar Heels 1981-1982 NCAA championship team (thus, both played for coach Dean Smith). Lynch became the team's administrative assistant/graduate manager.